12 Days of Happy Tails: Meet Waylon!
As the year winds down, we're taking a look back at all of the lives that we’ve saved thanks to your support. It’s another year of 12 Days of Happy Tails — stories that touched the hearts of our staff and volunteers. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we’ve loved all of these special pups.
Today’s Happy Tail is handsome Waylon, who came into our care by way of our partner shelter in Kentucky. Waylon had some medical conditions that required attention including a heart murmur and heart stenosis, along with anxiety, but we were positive he deserved to be given the chance to live his best life with the right parents. As it turned out, those people were David and Kylie – who had adopted another dog from us a few years ago.
While in foster, we learned that Waylon really thrived when he was around other dogs. This is common with pups like Waylon who are very shy and anxious - and his foster siblings played a large role in helping him adjust! Waylon looked to the resident dogs while in foster for cues on (assumptive) simple things like walking around a backyard, to how to play and engage with people. We have to give credit to those pups for being such an important part of Waylon’s story!
Waylon had a lot of initial interest because he was small and adorable, but for one reason or another, none of the potential adopters worked out...until David and Kylie.
David and Kylie said, “We always knew we were going to have a second dog, wanting a companion for our first rescue, Maya, who was also adopted from MPR. We diligently watched the MPR website every week when we finally came across Waylon's photo, and just immediately fell in love with his silly but gentlemanly looks. His shy, gentleness with a dash of playfulness sounded like he would be a perfect fit for our overly-friendly dog. Waylon's bio stated he needed another dog for companionship, and we knew Maya could offer that! Maya is a large dog who just doesn't know her own size. She's the type that would shower you with love whether you wanted it or not, and she's always down to play. More importantly, she knows how to cater her playing style with all sizes, and often shows her belly submissively even to the tiniest of dogs! It's so hilarious to watch her submit herself to a tiny chihuahua.
We decided to meet with Waylon despite all our hesitations because we really had fallen in love with his bio and photos, and thought there was no harm to meet. …when we met him, it solidified the fact that we really felt strongly for him and couldn't bear to leave him behind. Sadly, Maya and Waylon seemed to ignore each other at the event and didn't even seem the slightest bit curious about each other. And of course, there were his health concerns that we needed to address. That's when MPR offered the option to foster-to-adopt as Waylon had been previously adopted and returned, and this was to ensure Waylon and Maya indeed were a good fit, so we thought: why not? To be honest, Maya also had a similar situation where she had been adopted and returned too, so when we heard this about Waylon, we immediately felt the need to take him on.
During this period, it was tough for both Waylon and Maya; Maya had been the only furry child in our household, and Waylon was trying to acclimate to his new environment and adjust to Maya's schedule. As much as Maya wanted Waylon to play with her, he was set on hiding and being content doing his own thing instead; he was very much like a cat. There were times when they fought (like most siblings sometimes do) and MPR was very responsive in providing pointers and tips.
We were very worried, but then, a day before our foster-to-adopt ended, suddenly, it was like magic. Something clicked and Waylon was suddenly playing with Maya like there was no tomorrow. He followed her everywhere she went, even to her crate (not wanting to be separated from her), and took all the social dog cues from her. He suddenly was dog-ging. It was like he finally realized that he was safe; whether it was something we did or what Maya did, we knew he was happy when his tail wagged at us that very morning. It was then and there we knew this would work, that we could do this, that Waylon belonged with us. MPR's help and guidance was integral to all of this; they were there to guide us and provided us with a great support network.
We would love to say we changed Waylon's life, but really, he has changed ours. He made us question ourselves and our abilities, and empowered us to push through and adapt. There is no "one style" when it comes to being a furry pet owner. There is no right answer. We love Waylon and we adapted our lives to him because we feel he deserves a happy, safe and loving home, as do all pets.”
